Post by swamprat on May 28, 2011 9:08:48 GMT -6

PARIS, May 27 (UPI) -- Technology drawing on long-running research conducted in space could lead to a new way to keep hospital patients safe from infections, European researchers say.

Using plasma -- superheated, electrically charged gas -- Gregor Morfill at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics say he is developing ways to kill bacteria and viruses that can cause infections in hospitals.

The research began on the International Space Station, where his physics experiments, funded by the European Space Agency, have been running since 2001, an ESA release from Paris said Friday.The work in space has led to the potential for very practical terrestrial applications, Morfill said.

Plasma dispensers can tackle a serious problem -- super-strains of bacteria that can survive the strongest antibiotics in medicine's arsenal -- that has been growing in recent years, he said."What we have with plasma is the possibility to supplement our own immune system," Morfill said.

Morfill is designing a system that makes use of plasma's innate anti-bacterial properties to make disinfection easy and quick."It has many practical applications, from hand hygiene to food hygiene, disinfection of medical instruments, personal hygiene, even dentistry -- this could be used in many, many fields," Morfill said.

Post by Steve on May 28, 2011 11:33:41 GMT -6

“We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
From ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Post by auntym on Aug 30, 2011 11:59:23 GMT -6

Space Station Captures Image of Face in Storm...[/color]WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO YOU?

Uploaded by NASAtelevision on Aug 28, 2011

Cameras mounted on the International Space Station captured new views of Tropical Storm Irene at 2:33 p.m. EDT on August 28, 2011 as the storm bore down on the east coast of the United States. Expedition 28 Flight Engineer Mike Fossum comments on the condition of the storm as seen from space.

Post by auntym on Aug 30, 2011 13:38:14 GMT -6

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronauts may need to take the unprecedented step of temporarily abandoning the International Space Station if last week's Russian launch accident prevents new crews from flying there this fall.

Until officials figure out what went wrong with Russia's essential Soyuz rockets, there will be no way to launch any more astronauts before the current residents have to leave in mid-November.

The unsettling predicament comes just weeks after NASA's final space shuttle flight.

Abandoning the space station, even for a short period, would be an unpleasant last resort for the world's five space agencies that have spent decades working on the project. Astronauts have been living aboard the space station since 2000, and the goal is to keep it going until 2020.

Suffredini said flight controllers could keep a deserted space station operating indefinitely, as long as all major systems are working properly. The risk to the station goes up, however, if no one is on board to fix equipment breakdowns.

Six astronauts from three countries presently are living on the orbiting complex. Three are due to leave next month; the other three are supposed to check out in mid-November. They can't stay any longer because of spacecraft and landing restrictions.

The Sept. 22 launch of the very next crew — the first to fly in this post-shuttle era — already has been delayed indefinitely. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft have been the sole means of getting full-time station residents up and down for two years. The capsule is parked at the station until they ride it home.CONTINUE READING:news.yahoo.com/nasa-space-station-may-evacuated-nov-153619971.html

"ROADS? WHERE WE'RE GOING, WE DON'T NEED ROADS." Dr. Emmett Brown to Marty McFly in BACK TO THE FUTURE 2

Post by skywalker on Aug 30, 2011 16:08:37 GMT -6

I just had a conspiracy theory run rampant through my brain. I remember a little while ago that the Russians announced they were going to bring the space station out of orbit and let it crash into the ocean. They only changed their minds because NASA had a cow about it and basically demanded that it be kept open until 2020. If I remember correctly it was the very next Russian rocket launch that was supposed to take supplies to the station that was destroyed.

No supplies were able to get up there. No more astronauts can go up until they figure out what went wrong. The few astronauts who are there will be forced to leave soon and NASA has no way of getting new astronauts up there because they just decommissioned the Shuttle program.

What do you suppose the chances are that the Russians caused that last rocket launch to fail on purpose just so they would be able to abandon the space station like they originally wanted to?

Post by Steve on Aug 31, 2011 13:04:26 GMT -6

I just had a conspiracy theory run rampant through my brain. I remember a little while ago that the Russians announced they were going to bring the space station out of orbit and let it crash into the ocean. They only changed their minds because NASA had a cow about it and basically demanded that it be kept open until 2020. If I remember correctly it was the very next Russian rocket launch that was supposed to take supplies to the station that was destroyed.

No supplies were able to get up there. No more astronauts can go up until they figure out what went wrong. The few astronauts who are there will be forced to leave soon and NASA has no way of getting new astronauts up there because they just decommissioned the Shuttle program.

What do you suppose the chances are that the Russians caused that last rocket launch to fail on purpose just so they would be able to abandon the space station like they originally wanted to?

Chances they deliberately caused their own rocket to fail non-existent. Cheaper to simply just say 'No'.

The Progress cargo vehicle loss was the first in 44 previous flights. About a 2% failure rate. The Space Shuttle failure rate was 2 out of 135.

The Russians are just as much spacefarer's as we are. They have a big investment in the ISS too. They also have their own cosmonauts up there.

It is not their fault we are poor at long range planning, and our Congress is an embarrassment.

The Russians are working quickly on evaluating and correcting the problem. The same boosters are incorporated into the manned vehicles too, so they know what is at stake.

Steve

“We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
From ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Post by skywalker on Aug 31, 2011 13:08:09 GMT -6

If they just said "no" then it wouldn't be a conspiracy theory...what fun would that be? We'll have to wait and see if the next rocket fails also.

Does anybody know what the Russian launch schedule is? I think they have suspended future launches until they figure out what went wrong with the last one. Do they post the dates anywhere like NASA does?

Post by jokelly on Aug 31, 2011 14:33:17 GMT -6

Post by auntym on Sept 19, 2011 15:55:20 GMT -6

this is really interesting...[/color]THE VIEW FROM THE SPACE STATION...

What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?

Uploaded by yesterday2221 on Sep 15, 2011

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy. Raw data was downloaded from;

Post by Steve on Sept 30, 2011 13:44:41 GMT -6

Have you ever dreamed of flying high above the Earth?

Astronauts visiting the International Space Station do this every day, circling our restless planet twice every three hours. A dramatic example of their view was compiled in the above time-lapse video from images taken earlier this month. As the ISS speeds into the nighttime half of the globe, familiar constellations of stars remain visible above. An aerosol haze of Earth's thin atmosphere is visible on the horizon as an thin multi-colored ring. Many wonders whiz by below, including vast banks of white clouds, large stretches of deep blue sea, land lit up by the lights of big cities and small towns, and storm clouds flashing with lightning. The video starts over the northern Pacific Ocean and then passes from western North America to western South America, ending near Antarctica as daylight finally approaches.

Watching this several times imagine viewing this from an alien perspective? As Humans will soon have the capability hopefully with new orbiting observatories to see clearer newly discovered exo-planets. Imagine our excitement and world changing discovery if in those far off images we also saw city lights?

It registers so much about us, not only life, but life that has achieved some remarkable level of technology and energy used to light whole cities, and all that goes with it.

“We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
From ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Post by swamprat on Oct 29, 2011 20:34:29 GMT -6

The outcome of an unmanned Russian supply spaceship launch to the International Space Station on Sunday (Oct. 30) will determine whether the station remains fully staffed in the upcoming months.

The Progress 45 cargo vessel is slated to blast off from Kazakhstan at 6:11 a.m. EDT (1011 GMT) Sunday. If anything goes wrong with the flight, the launch of three new station crewmembers — currently scheduled for Nov. 14 — would likely be delayed, because both missions use similar Russian Soyuz rockets.

And if the manned mission is delayed by more than five days or so, the station could be left without a crew for the first time in more than a decade, because the three spaceflyers currently aboard are due to come home on Nov. 22.

Post by auntym on Nov 10, 2011 14:00:16 GMT -6

The Space HotelSeveral Plans have been Proposed for using a Space Station as a Hotel

Uploaded by RussiaToday on Oct 1, 2010

Space - the final frontier - could soon turn into a tourist hotspot. And it's nothing to do with the International Space Station. A Russian firm's promising to launch the world's first orbital hotel. RT's Staci Bivens reports.

Uploaded by TheSpaceAdventurer on May 25, 2010

Fly to space with Space Adventures and Armadillo Aerospace

After early successes in space, much of the public saw intensive space exploration as inevitable. Those aspirations are remembered in science fiction such as Arthur C. Clarke's A Fall of Moondust and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Lucian in the 2nd century AD in his book True History examines the idea of a crew of men whose ship travels to the Moon during a storm. Jules Verne also took up the theme of lunar visits in his books, From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon.

Robert A. Heinlein’s short story The Menace from Earth, published in 1957, was one of the first to incorporate elements of a developed space tourism industry within its framework.

During the 1960s and 1970s, it was common belief that space hotels would be launched by 2000. Many futurologists around the middle of the 20th century speculated that the average family of the early 21st century would be able to enjoy a holiday on the Moon.

In the 1960s, Pan Am established a waiting list for future flights to the moon, issuing free "First Moon Flights Club" membership cards to those who requested them.

The end of the Space Race, culminating in the Moon landings, decreased the emphasis placed on space exploration by national governments and therefore led to decreased demands for public funding of manned space flights.

Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. Orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport.

The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft was US$ 20–35 million.

Some space tourists have signed contracts with third parties to conduct certain research while in orbit. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry.

Russia halted orbital space tourism in 2010 due to the increase in the International Space Station crew size, using the seats for expedition crews that would be sold to paying spaceflight participants.

However, tourist flights are tentatively planned to resume in 2013, when the number of single-use three-person Soyuz launches could rise to five a year.

Post by skywalker on Nov 10, 2011 16:25:35 GMT -6

I think it would be years before any normal people would be able to afford to go up there. I'm sure it isn't cheap. It may be a while before Joe Shmoe who works at the corner drugstore can afford a luxery like that.

Post by jokelly on Nov 10, 2011 18:07:29 GMT -6

Well besides that..if these vacationing earthlings encounter ET on the way or while there..the government just says..wow..so there is life out there. Still no reason to disclose anything. Way too much of a political agenda

Post by jokelly on Nov 11, 2011 1:37:37 GMT -6

They may not be as informed as people think they are OR are kept silent for reasons we're not aware of if they do know more. I see it one of three ways. Either they have full awareness and by some agreement they can't say anything public or they know but have no means of protecting against any threat so it's better not to cause a panic (hey there are aliens visiting but they're smarter, more advanced and better weaponized than we are and we can't protect anyone from them) or they really are as clueless as we are. Tooooo many different stories..and I think at least part of those are the way our brains process experiences beyond our scope..part are wishful thinking..part are lies..part are planted information. WE know they are here..we just don't know why and we won't until they figure it's time. Maybe tomorrow .

Post by swamprat on Nov 11, 2011 15:12:16 GMT -6

Shuttle at the ISS

How was this picture taken? Usually, pictures of the shuttle, taken from space, are snapped from the space station. Commonly, pictures of the space station are snapped from the shuttle. How, then, can there be a picture of both the shuttle and the station together, taken from space? The answer is that during the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last trip to the International Space Station two weeks ago, a supply ship departed the station with astronauts that captured a series of rare views.

The supply ship was the Russian Soyuz TMA-20 which landed in Kazakhstan later that day. The above spectacular image well captures the relative sizes of the station and docked shuttle. Far below, clouds of Earth are seen above a blue sea. Source: NASA

Post by swamprat on Nov 14, 2011 8:14:31 GMT -6

U.S.-Russian Crew Blasts Off for Space Station

Published November 14, 2011Associated Press

MOSCOW – A Russian spacecraft carrying an American and two Russians blasted off Monday from the snow-covered Kazakh steppes in a faultless launch that eased anxiety about the future of U.S. and Russian space programs.

The Soyuz TMA-22 lifted off as scheduled at 8:14 a.m. (0414 GMT) from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome to carry NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on a mission to the International Space Station.

The launch had been delayed for two months due to the crash of an unmannned Progress cargo ship in August. The failed launch raised doubts about future missions to the station, because the rocket that crashed used the same upper stage as the booster rockets carrying Soyuz ships to orbit.

NASA had warned that the space outpost would need to be abandoned temporarily for the first time in nearly 11 years if a new crew could not be launched before the last of the station's six residents flew back to Earth in mid-November.

Russian space officials tracked down the Progress launch failure to an "accidental" manufacturing flaw and recalled all Soyuz rockets from space launch pads for a thorough examination. The successful launch of a Progress ship last month cleared the way for the crew to be sent off.

The new crew are to arrive just in time to keep the orbiting station manned. The three crew members currently on board the station are set to return to Earth on Nov. 21. Another launch next month is to take the station back to its normal six-person crew mode.

The 39-year-old Shkaplerov and 42-year-old Ivanishin are making their first flights into space. Burbank, 50, who will take over command of the space station, is a veteran of 12-day shuttle missions in 2000 and 2006. The three men are to remain aboard the space station until March.

Even in the case of an engine failure like the one that led to the Progress crash in August, a Soyuz crew would be rescued by an emergency escape system. But any further launch trouble would have prompted NASA to rethink the space station program, which now relies exclusively on Russian spacecraft after the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in July.

The Progress crash was one in a string of spectacular launch failures that raised concerns about the state of Russia's space industries. In the latest failure, an unmanned probe intended to collect ground samples on Phobos, a moon of Mars, in the most ambitious Russian interplanetary mission since the Soviet era, suffered an equipment failure shortly after Wednesday's launch and got stuck in Earth orbit.

Russian space officials have blamed the botched launches on obsolete equipment and an aging workforce. The space agency said it will establish its own quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over production quality.

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km. Credit: NASA Expedition crews.

Footage itself already has an almost surreal and even a bit hypnotic in visual nature.

What is it like to circle the Earth? Every 90 minutes, astronauts aboard the International Space Station experience just that. Recently, crew members took a series of light-sensitive videos looking down at night that have been digitally fused to produce the above time-lapse video. Many wonders of the land and sky are visible in the eighteen sequences, including red aurora above green aurora, lights from many major cities, and stars in the background. Looming at the top of the frame is usually part of the space station itself, sometimes seen re-orienting solar panels. Please help create a useful companion guide for this moving video by identifying landmarks, cities, countries, weather phenomena, and even background constellations that appear.

Shooting locations in order of appearance:

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia4. Aurora Australis south of Australia5. Northwest coast of USA to Central South America at Night6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to Northern Pacific Ocean7. Halfway around the World8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam14. Views of the Mideast at Night15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night

“We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
From ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Post by auntym on Nov 30, 2011 14:25:28 GMT -6

"Where the robot entered my head," says 21-year old Paige Nickason, the first patient to have brain surgery performed by a robot as she points to an area on her forehead. "Now that neuroArm has removed the tumor from my brain, it will go on to help many other people like me around the world." (Jason Stang)

The delicate touch that successfully removed an egg-shaped tumor from Paige Nickason's brain got a helping hand from a world-renowned arm -- a robotic arm, that is. The technology that went into developing neuroArm, the world's first robot capable of performing surgery inside magnetic resonance machines, was born from the Canadarm (developed by MDA for the US Space Shuttle Program), as well as Canadarm2 and Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency's family of space robots performing the heavy-lifting and maintenance on board the International Space Station.

neuroArm began with the search for a solution to a surgical dilemma: how to make difficult surgeries easier or impossible surgeries possible. MDA worked with a team led by Dr. Garnette Sutherland at the University of Calgary to develop a highly precise robotic arm that works in conjunction with the advanced imaging capabilities of MRI systems. Surgeons needed to be able to perform surgeries while a patient was inside a magnetic resonance (MRI) machine, which meant designing a robot that was as dexterous as the human hand but even more precise and tremor-free. Operating inside the MRI also means it had to be entirely made from non-magnetic materials (for instance, no steel) so that it would not be affected by the MRI's magnetic field or adversely affect the MRI's images. The project team developed novel ways to control the robot's movements and give the robot's operator a sense of touch -- both essential so that the surgeon can precisely control the robot and can feel what is happening during the surgery.

Since Paige Nickason's surgery in 2008, neuroArm has been used to successfully treat dozens more patients. The neuroArm technology has since been purchased by IMRIS Inc. a private publicly traded medical device manufacturer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. MDA and IMRIS are advancing the design to commercialize a two-armed version of the system to allow surgeons to see detailed three-dimensional images of the brain, as well as surgical tools and hand controllers that allow the surgeon to feel tissue and apply pressure when they operate. A clinical trial led by Dr. Sutherland is currently underway at Calgary's Foothills hospital using the first generation of the robot on a group of 120 patients. IMRIS anticipates being in a position to seek regulatory approval for the robot as early as 2012.

spotless38: Iam back after a long break . What a couple of years I had . After what had happened I lost my brother and had to bury him and then I had caught that type A flue and I was a very sick puppy I also needed blood for the loss of it .Jul 7, 2018 13:30:41 GMT -6

lois: Very Happy to see you Ron. Missed you. Glad you are doing better now. Sorry for your lost. I did not know your brother had passed. hugs loisJul 10, 2018 0:52:45 GMT -6

lois: I picked up my phone a few days ago and I looked at the name of the caller. Boy was I surprise. It has been a couple of years. So good to hear your voice Ron. Hope you make it a habit again. love and hugs .Aug 15, 2018 23:21:38 GMT -6

leia77: Spotless, I am glad that you are feeling better and welcome back! I too am back from a long time away...Aug 31, 2018 2:08:32 GMT -6

jcurio: I am much relieved to see that you have been on here, Spotless! I hope that things are going much better for you now Sept 19, 2018 16:46:42 GMT -6